Back to Part I

PART II

After just a few kilometres, we suddenly had to slow down. There was a cow sitting on the road and chewing grass and it didn’t show any intention to leave its place, so we had to drive around it.

On our way to Sogndalsfjøra, we drove the same way we had come two days before, which meant five longer tunnels, including the Fjærlandstunnel and the Frudalstunnel, and heebie-jeebies for Dwarf Vader. We also halted at Berge, right before the Frudalstunnel, to take some pictures of the Fjærlandsfjord and the mountains around.

The Fjærlandsfjord again

Looking northwards from the same vantage point

From Sogndalsfjøra we went southeast to Mannheller, where we took the ferry to Fodnes.

Looking back at Mannheller

View to the east from the ferry to Fodnes

Right before Mannheller we had to drive through the Amlatunnel (3 km long) and shortly after Fodnes we had to pass the Fodnestunnel (6.6 km long) – one could say today it was a heebie-jeebies-fest for Dwarf Vader. When we drove through the Lærdal, he was relieved that we didn’t have to go west through the Lærdaltunnel – which is the longest tunnel in the world (about 25 km long) and might have meant a heebie-jeebies-overkill – but into the opposite direction. However, there were still three more tunnels to come, namely the Seltatunnel (1.6 km long), the Borgundtunnel (3 km long) and the Tuftåstunnel (2.6 km long).

Right after the Borgundtunnel, we made a little detour to the Borgund stave church, a very old wooden church, built somewhere between 1180 and 1250.

The Borgund stave church

Then we continued our trip. In Borlo we had to turn south and the road went up into the Hemsedalfjell. At one point a sign near the road said that we were about 1,160 m above sea level.

In the Hemsedalfjell

The road behind us…

...and the road ahead of us

We drove further southeast down into the Hemsedal to Gol and from there a bit through the Hallingdal until we reached Nesbyen. There we turned west. From Tunhovd we drove south along the Tunhovdfjord and we eventually arrived in Rødberg at about half past 4.

After checking in at our hotel, we drove to the Uvdal stave church, which was built in the 12^th century. It lies just a few kilometres west of Rødberg. There’s some kind of open air museum, consisting of the church itself and several old wooden buildings.

The Uvdal stave church (12^th century)

Dwarf Vader and me in one of the houses

In a barn, there was an old sleigh and since no one was watching, Bjørkisen took the chance to climb onto it. He also posed in front of some of the other buildings.

Bjørkisen sitting happily in a sleigh

The next day, we made a trip to another two stave churches. It was rainy and also a bit foggy in the mountains around. First we drove to the Nore stave church, which was also built in the 12^th century. It seemed to be closed, so Burkhard only took some pictures outside.

The Nore stave church (12^th century)

Then we visited the Rollag stave church, which also stems from the 12^th century.

The Rollag stave church (12^th century)

When we were inside and no one was watching, Bjørkisen couldn’t resist and climbed onto the bench in front of the organ.

Bjørkisen at the organ

After Burkhard had taken lots of pictures outside the church we drove back to our hotel.

The next morning, at about 9 o’clock, we left Rødberg and drove south through the Numedal. It was again a rainy day and many mountains were hidden partly in fog.

Somewhere in Numedalen

Still somewhere in Numedalen

We made a stop at the Flesberg stave church.

The Flesberg stave church (built around 1200)

Unfortunately, it was closed, so after taking some pictures outside we continued our trip via Kongsberg and Drammen and finally arrived at our hotel – the Rica Holberg Hotel – in Oslo at about 1 p.m.

After checking in, the first thing to do was to find a parking place. Burkhard had booked the Oslo package, thus the hotel in combination with the Oslo-pass. The Oslo-pass does not only include free entrance to many museums and free use of the public transportation system in Oslo (as I already mentioned in my report about the Voggesanger fra ondskapens akse-concert in Oslo 7 years ago), but also free parking on all municipal parking places. Unfortunately, on most of them, you are only allowed to park for one or two hours. But Burkhard was lucky and found a parking place with unlimited parking time just a few hundred metres from the hotel at Sofies Plass.

A few hours later, Burkhard met two Gåte-fans in front of another hotel not too far away from our hotel. One of them was Luca, whom Burkhard already knew from the days of the old Gåte-forum (which unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore) and who had travelled all the way from the south of Italy to Norway to attend Gåte’s final concert in Oslo. The other one was Eirik, whom Burkhard knows from the Madder Mortem-forum and who lives in Oslo. Luca and Eirik already knew each other before. Eirik had been so kind to order the tickets for Gåte’s concert for Burkhard and Luca and he also showed us around the city.

Together we took the bus to Holmenkollen and from the top of that place one had a nice view over Oslo. It was quite windy up there.

Looking down from the opposite side

It seemed as if Oslo was surrounded by dark and rainy clouds, though somewhere in the centre of the city, there was still a part on which the sun was shining. Luckily, it didn’t rain.

View over Oslo from the top of Holmenkollen

Afterwards, Eirik invited us to his home where he lives together with his German girlfriend and two cats. They cooked a traditional Norwegian meal for us named "Rømmegrøt", but it took a little bit longer than originally planned and they said they were not really sure if it had really turned out as it was supposed to. Luca liked it a lot. Burkhard decided that one portion was enough. Dwarf Vader and I didn’t eat anything, but that’s because we don’t need to eat, since we purely feed on imagination. Bjørkisen hadn’t come with us and had decided to stay at the hotel, because there were still so many impressions from this trip spinning around in his head and he wanted to be on his own for a while. At about 11 p.m. we also went back to our hotel.

The next morning we met at Luca’s hotel at about 10 o’clock and drove to the harbour, from where we took the boat to Bygdøy, a peninsula with several museums. First we visited the Viking Ship Museum and then the Norwegian Folk Museum.

Viking carriage

In the Viking Ship Museum, they also sell a lot of merchandise, like e.g. traditional Viking sunglasses and – very popular with children – the original Viking lollipops with runes written on them. Maybe in ancient times the latter were also used for secret messages. Once the recipient had read the message written on the lollipops, he could simply eat them and no one would ever find out about it.

Viking merchandise

In the Folk Museum there was a very interesting exhibit showing a traditional Norwegian type of martial arts called Hallingkast. It’s very difficult, because it requires a Hardanger-fiddle player to get you in the right fighting mood – well, maybe an ordinary fiddle player will also do – and a woman standing on a chair and holding a hat on a stick to show you where you have got to place your kick.

A traditional Norwegian type of martial arts

I suppose the main reason why this fighting technique never became very popular outside Norway is the fact that it’s a bit impractical, because when someone suddenly attacks you, you usually don’t have a fiddle player at hand, let alone a woman carrying a chair, a hat and and stick.

Since the Norwegian Folk Museum is a very big area and since Burkhard already wanted to be back at our hotel at 2 p.m. to meet another Gåte-fan, there was only time for us to visit the exhibition of traditional furniture and folk costumes.

While Luca and Eirik continued their walk through the Folk Museum, we returned to our hotel.

At 2 p.m., just as planned, Burkhard met Jessica in the lobby of our hotel. Jessica, whom Burkhard knew from the Sonic Cathedral-forum, might have been the Gåte-fan who had travelled the longest distance to attend their final concert in Oslo, because she had come from the USA.

Burkhard accompanied her to the youth hostel where she would stay for the next couple of days. Luckily, there was a tram going from the halt at our hotel directly to a halt close to the youth hostel.

After Jessica had checked in, we took the Metro to the Munch Museum where we were to meet Eirik and Luca at 4 p.m.

Burkhard and I had already visited the Munch Museum on our first trip to Oslo in 2003, but a lot has changed since then. While there hadn’t been hardly any security measures way back then, the security measures now reminded Burkhard of the security measures introduced at many German courts after some people got killed some years ago. This is obviously a consequence of the fact, that several years ago two of Munch’s most famous paintings – "Skrik" and "Madonna" – got stolen from the Munch Museum. Now they are back again.

However, now that is has probably become impossible to steal any of the paintings, it seems that people have started stealing letters from the text beside the painting "Skrik" which gives some background information about the painting itself and how it was stolen.

The text about "Skrik" with missing letters

I wonder if those people glue the stolen letter(s) on a piece of paper, put it into a frame and hang it onto the wall, e.g. in their living-room, so if they have guests asking "What’s that? A single letter on a piece of paper? Is that modern art?", they can say: "Ha, you ignorant fool! This is a letter from the inscription beside Edvard Munch’s famous painting "Skrik" in the Munch Museum!"

In the museum, Dwarf Vader got inventive again and suggested to play the "Guess the title of the painting"-game. He wanted to guess and I should tell him, if he was right or not.

"’The face-colouring effects of nausea and sunburn’!", he proudly declared. "No, and that’s far too elaborate." "Hm, how about ‘The sight of you makes us sick’?" "Not really." "Then I have no idea." "It’s titled ‘Sjalusi’ which means ‘Jealousy’."

"’Animals hiding in a forest’!" "But there are no animals on this paiting." "Ah, you see, that’s the proof!" "The proof of what?" "That they are hiding!" "Sorry, but the title is actually ‘Mørk granskog’ which means ‘Dark Spruce Forest’." "Damn! But at least I got the forest-part right, didn’t I?"

"’Oh no, another bloody tourist taking a picture of me and I can’t get out of this frame!’" "Far too long." "’Help! Someone’s trying to steal this painting!’?" Dwarf ventured. "No, it’s simply called ‘Skrik’, which means ‘Scream’." "This game is obviously too difficult for me."

At about 6 o’clock we said goodbye to Eirik. Burkhard, Jessica, Luca, Dwarf Vader and I drove back to our hotel, where Bjørkisen awaited us. He hadn’t come with us, because he was afraid that they might not allow freaks inside the museum and since Bjørkisen is a lot bigger than Dwarf Vader and me, he can’t just hide in a pocket like we can. Well, since Burkhard had taken some pictures, Bjørkisen could still see a part of what we had seen.

At 7 o’clock, Burkhard, Jessica and Luca went to Tullin’s Bar, which was just a stone’s throw away from our hotel. There they were to meet Bergtatt’s guitarist John Stenersen. Already before our trip to Norway, John had suggested to Burkhard to meet him there, since he wouldn’t be able to play the concert in Sandane because of the important exam he had to take the next day. Since Jessica and Luca are also big fans of Bergtatt – after all, it had been Luca who had recommended them to Burkhard –, John had said it would be cool to meet them, too. John didn’t come alone, but he was accompanied by Rolf-Erik Solstad Karlsen, the second guitarist of Bergtatt, whom Burkhard had already met four days before in Sandane. Since Tullin’s Bar was so crowded inside that there wasn’t any table for five people left, they had to sit outside. Unfortunately, just when the drinks had been brought, it started raining. So after they had paid the bill, Rolf-Erik decided to go to another bar named Ophelia, which was just a few metres away on the other side of Rica Holbergs Plass. There they talked about music, especially folk music – who would have guessed that? – and recommended bands to each other. John talked, among other things, about plans for Bergtatt’s upcoming albums and was also open to suggestions. Three people from different countries who had never met before, all of them with a deep passion for the music they like, were sitting together with two members of one of their favourite Norwegian bands and discussing (mostly) music for about 3 hours – that’s something very special which you don’t experience that often.

The next morning we met Jessica and Luca at about 10 o’clock in front of Luca’s hotel. From there we went to the Opera-building to have a look at the venue where Gåte’s concert was to take place this night. One could already see the stage swimming on the water.

Looking down from the opera-roof

Then we visited the Ibsen Museum, but my impression was that it was nothing to write home about. And the others didn’t seem to be overly impressed, either. From there we went to the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace

Since Jessica and Luca wanted to have a little rest, we all went back to our accomodations. At about 4 p.m. we met again and drove to Eirik’s apartment where we were served another traditional Norwegian meal (the name of which I don’t remember). At about 10 past 7, we took the bus to the opera. There weren’t that many people there when we arrived at about half past 7, which allowed us to get a place quite close to the water and thus quite close to the stage. One reason why there were less people than I had expected might have been that the weather wasn’t as good anymore as a few hours before.

While the sun had been shining in the early afternoon, it was now clouded and even started to rain, only slightly though. So Burkhard did not only buy a Gåte T-shirt, but also a raincape. The latter was rather cheap - and so was its quality, because it easily tore, as Burkhard found out.

Not too long after we had sat down, some familiar faces appeared, namely those of John, Rolf-Erik and Linn Katrin from Bergtatt. John and Rolf-Erik had already announced the evening before that they’d also come to see Gåte’s concert and that Linn Katrin might join them. They sat down beside us. Now there were four people from four different countries who – before – had only known each other from the internet awaiting the final concert of one of their overall favourite bands together with three members of another one of their favourite bands. How often does something like this happen?

3 tourists from Germany, the USA and Italy and their Norwegian guide awaiting Gåte’s final concert

At about 8 p.m., a female singer (whose name I don’t remember) came on stage who sang a few traditional songs acapella. A little bit later she returned, this time being accompanied by some musicians for a few more songs.

At about 10 p.m., Gåte finally entered the stage, allegedly for the very last time. Luckily, just a few minutes before it had stopped raining, so Burkhard could also take some pictures. It would have been rather disappointing to attend such a special concert and not be able to take some pictures. Of course, afterwards you also find pictures taken by others on the net, but it’s not the same.

It has to be said that the light show was really impressive! Sure, it’s the music which matters most, but an impressive light show can make an already great concert even more special.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a setlist of this concert, because since Burkhard took pictures, he couldn’t take notes of the songs being played at the same time. Dwarf Vader and I are too small to hold a pencil made for humans, so we couldn’t do it either. However, I do remember that they played our overall faves "Knut liten & Sylvelin" and "Margit Hjukse". I think it was during the latter when guitarist Magnus – I think you could also call him a freak, though of a different kind – suddenly appeared in front of one of the two huge screens they had put up beside the main stage, so the people in the back and on top of the opera roof didn’t need binoculars or operaglasses to see what was happening on the stage. Sometimes I wonder how Magnus manages to practice his crazy stageacting without breaking an arm or a leg or any other parts of his body.

During "Bruremarsj frå Jämtland", Gåte were joined by Knut lit... er, I mean Buen, a fiddle player. Unfortunately, after about 50 minutes it had started raining again and it didn’t stop until about a quarter to twelve, when Gåte played their encores. In spite of the rain one could see that Gåte were definitely enjoying themselves on the stage very much and the same went for the audience. Jessica, who stood right beside Burkhard, was either jumping up and down or practiced some serious headbanging like there was no tomorrow. She even – unintentionally, of course – jumped on Burkhard’s feet twice – luckily, she didn’t wear high heels! She also sang along a lot – like many other people did, as one could tell e.g. by Luca’s and Eirik’s hoarse voices after the concert.

When Gåte played their encores "Sjåaren" – another highlight of their concert – and "Kjærleik", Gunnhild got some vocal support by Operaens Jentekor (the opera’s girls choir).

I think all in all, the concert lasted a bit less than two hours. When the music of "Gjendines bånsull" set it, everyone knew it was over. However, since the entire concert was filmed with several cameras, it seems very likely to me that there will be another live-DVD. It’s always good to have something to look forward to!

After the concert, Luca and John were in such a good mood that they started a passionate, yet admittedly somewhat off-key acapella rendition of "Ægir" (the first song on Bergtatt’s debut album "Røtter"). Since there was still some vocal energy left, the chorus of "Når eg døyr" followed as an encore.

While John, Rolf-Erik and Linn Katrin left, Jessica, Luca, Eirik and Burkhard waited, still hoping for a chance to say hello to the members of Gåte – and they didn’t hope in vain. There was only one way to leave the stage. OK, thinking about it, stagediving – in the literal sense – would have been an alternative, but the band opted for the dry way. When Magnus heard that we had travelled from Germany, Italy and even the United States to see their final concert, he spontaneously invited us to come to their aftershow party – an offer we couldn’t reject. Unfortunately, Eirik couldn’t come with us, since it was already past midnight and he had to go to work the next morning.

After we had arrived at the aftershow party, it took a little while until we got a chance to say hello to some of the band members. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of people there, probably many friends and relatives among them. Their former drummer, Martin Langlie, was – of course – also there and Burkhard also spotted Joachim, the stand-in for John at Bergtatt’s concert in Sandane. Luca and Jessica got some pictures taken together with some of the musicians. And Burkhard got the CD-booklets of the demo-EP, the first EP and "Iselilja" signed. Unfortunately, it seemed that Sveinung had already left earlier, so Burkhard somehow missed the chance to get his CD-booklets signed by him, which means that now he will have to wait for the next reunion concert.

Bjørkisen and the signed CD-booklets

Maybe at about 2 a.m., I don’t remember the exact time, Jessica and Luca left. Burkhard and Luca said goodbye to each other, because Luca would already fly back to Italy the same day. A little bit later, Magnus, who is really a very friendly guy, finally could spare Burkhard a moment and after Burkhard had shown him some pictures showing how much Bjørkisen likes Gåte, Magnus granted Bjørkisen the favour to have a picture taken together with him.

Freak Bjørkisen and guitar-freak Magnus

Bjørkisen was overjoyed! He hadn’t been able to meet his freak relatives in Rennebu, but he now had at least met a guitar-freak, not a real freak, but some kind of freak nevertheless.

Magnus was also so kind to ask Gunnhild, if she could spare a moment for a picture together with Bjørkisen, but she was too busy talking to other people. Well, you can’t have it all, can you? Maybe if Gunnhild had known how jolly and cute Bjørkisen is, she might have decided differently, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Since it was already 3 a.m., Burkhard decided to get back to the hotel. When he left he said to Magnus:"See you at your next reunion concert!" Magnus responded with a grin and a "Thumbs up"-sign.

Even though Burkhard hadn’t gone to bed before 3.50 a.m., he already woke up just about three hours later.

After breakfast, Burkhard drove into town to look for the venue of the concert he had planned to attend together with Jessica this night. Three days before, Eirik had told Burkhard that Valkyrien Allstars would be playing at John Dee the day after Gåte’s concert. Since he had enjoyed their concert in Sandane just a week before, Burkhard bought a ticket for himself and Jessica, which Eirik had preordered on the internet.

Then Burkhard went to a record shop called Neseblod Records, which specializes in metal and which Eirik had recommended to him. It’s a very small shop, which can easily be overlooked, but it contains lots of special stuff. Burkhard did in fact find what he had been looking for, namely the fourth album by the Swedish progressive thrash metal band Hexenhaus, titled "Dejavoodoo". He already had a burned copy of this album which someone had sent him a few years ago, but if you really like an album, it’s always better to have an original CD. NOK199.00, which equals about €25.00, wasn’t exactly cheap, but considering that the album is out of print long since, it was OK for an original copy.

Somewhere in Oslo, we saw a writing on a wall which gives testimony of the friendly relationship between Norwegians and Swedes:

"Party-Swedes, go home!"
"But Norway is Swedish."

I suppose the most popular Swedes among Norwegians are those spelled with double-e and "ts" at the end.

After returning to the hotel, Burkhard had a little rest. Later in the afternoon, Jessica came over to the hotel and they both went into town to have something to eat. At about 8 o’clock we headed for John Dee, where we met John Stenersen again and his girlfriend.

Before Valkyrien Allstars came on stage, there was a very special opening act: Knut liten...OK, I don’t really know what his first name was, but "liten", i.e. little, he definitely was. A boy of maybe 5 or 6 years, playing on a small four-string guitar and singing. He only played three songs, well, I had the impression it was three times more or less the same song, at least they all sounded very similar to my ears. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand what he was saying nor what he was singing. He was obviously enjoying what he did, maybe also because of the enthusiastic reactions he got from the audience, well, most of the audience. I know that you are supposed to encourage kids when they are playing an instrument, but Burkhard told me later on that he found the music itself just boring.

Even though I’m not that familiar with Valkyrien Allstars’ music, I think their set was (nearly?) the same as the one they had played in Sandane a week before and it were again the faster songs which Burkhard and I enjoyed the most. This time, they had a different bass player, probably their regular one. It seemed that Jessica, who had never heard this band before, enjoyed their music very much. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay until the end, because she didn’t feel too well – probably because of the sticky air inside the venue. After the show, John and his girlfriend went backstage and John encouraged Burkhard to come along, which he did. Unfortunately, we came into a rather small room, already filled with about 10 people and nearly everyone of them was smoking. Well, we didn’t stay that long. John is obviously a really huge fan of Valkyrien Allstars, because not only did he have the CD he had bought after the concert signed by the musicians themselves, but also by the younger brother and the sister of one of the violin-players – when he found out that they were also backstage. After leaving the venue, Burkhard said goodbye to John and his girlfriend and we went back to our hotel.

The next day, which was our last full day in Oslo, we met Jessica at about 20 past 10 and went to the harbour to take the boat to Bygdøy. It was beautiful weather, the sun was shining and it was warm – why couldn’t it be like that when Gåte played?

View from the boat to Bygdøy

First we visited the Norwegian Folk Museum, starting with the indoor exhibitions about traditional art, traditional costumes and historic weapons, which Burkhard, Dwarf Vader and I had already seen together with Luca and Eirik three days before. Then we walked through the huge open air part of the museum, which consists of traditional buildings of different parts of Norway, thus one could say it’s some kind of "Norwayworld". There is even a real stave church from the 13^th century, the one from Gol.

The Gol stave church in the Norwegian Folk Museum

I think this part of the museum is very convenient for people in and around Oslo as well as for tourists who want to see what the buildings in other parts of the country used to look like, yet don’t have the time or the money to travel longer distances. Here you find buildings from Østerdal, Trøndelag, Fjordane, Hordaland, Østlandet, Hallingdal, Numedal, Setesdal and Telemark.

Dwarf Vader, Bjørkisen, an American tourist and me in the Open Air Theatre in the Folk Museum

 

A stave petrol station (possibly 13th century?)

There are some open houses with visible interiors and some open houses with activities. However, the museum does not show what the landscape in other parts of Norway looks like. This is probably due to space-problems. I mean, how would you fit in replicas of a glacier, a fjord or mountains in their original size?

After spending about three hours in the Folk Museum, we went to the Vikingship Museum, which Jessica hadn’t seen yet.

From there we moved on to the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Fram Museum. Both museums contained the ships they referred to in their original size. In the Fram Museum, it was even possible to get onto the ship and climb down into it to see what the rooms inside looked like, which was quite interesting.

A model of the Ra II

The Ra II in full size

The Kon-Tiki in full size

Me on the Fram

When we left the Fram Museum, we decided that we had had enough and we took the boat from Bygdøy back to the center of the city. From the harbour we went to the Akershus Fortress & Castle and from there back into the direction of Burkhard’s hotel. On our way to the hotel, Burkhard and Jessica had something to eat.

Finally, the time had come to say goodbye to Jessica. There was a big hug and Burkhard and Jessica wished each other all the best for their trip back. The next day, Jessica would fly back to the United States, while our trip back to Germany would take a little bit longer.

The next day, we drove from Oslo along the coast via the E18 to Kristiansand, where we stayed again at the Yess! Hotel. While we had left Oslo in sunny and warm weather, it started raining shortly after we had arrived in Kristiansand. When we were in a bookstore, Burkhard, who had already bought some Nemi comic magazines in Oslo, decided to also buy the newest Nemi book titled "Monstermaskinen", another Nemi book titled "Nemi del 5" (which turned out to be in Swedish, but that’s no problem, since Burkhard also understands some Swedish) and the book "Skrik – Parodier av Arvid", which contains, as the title already suggests, some funny cartoons featuring the screaming woman – I didn’t know it was a woman, but it says so in the introduction of this book – from Edvard Munch’s most famous painting "Skrik".

The next morning, Burkhard already had breakfast at half past six to make sure we would arrive in time at the check-in for our ferry back to Hirtshals, which was to leave at 8.45 a.m. But when we arrived at the check-in, there was a bad surprise, because we were told that due to bad weather our passage with the Fjord Cat had to be cancelled. The waves were obviously too high for a catamaran to cross the water safely. Luckily, we were early enough to book a place on the Color Line ferry which was to leave at 8.00 a.m.

Leaving Kristiansand

Once we were out on the open sea, one could see and also feel the waves. It was raining and there was also a strong wind blowing from the west.

Stormy sea and bad weather

It’s always good to know where you are

Normally, the Color Line ferry from Kristiansand also goes to Hirtshals, but after about an hour or so, the captain announced that it was not possible to go to Hirtshals because the weather there was too bad, so we would have to go to Frederikshavn instead.

This meant that instead of arriving in Hirtshals at 11.15 a.m., it would take about another two hours to get to Frederikshavn.

Near Frederikshavn

And when we came close to Frederikshavn, there was already another Color Line ferry in the harbour, so the captain announced that we would have to wait until that ferry had left.

The ferry we had to wait for, before our ferry could enter the harbour in Frederikshavn

We eventually arrived in the harbour at about 3 p.m. and it took about another half an hour until we had left the ferry. Luckily, we only had to drive about 350 kilometres to our hotel in Harislee – the one where we had already spent one night on our way to Norway. While we drove through Denmark, there was still a strong constant wind blowing from the west and we drove through lots of showers, but also saw some nice rainbows, even a double one.

We arrived in Harislee at about 7.45 p.m. and the next day at about 3 p.m., we were finally back home again.

Burkhard said that these were the best holidays he had ever had, because of all the things he saw on our trip, all the people he met and the concerts he attended, though with regard to the latter he added that Kari Bremnes still remained his favourite live artist, also because of her brilliant musicians and her excellent sound engineer. Dwarf Vader, Bjørkisen and I also agreed that this was an unforgettable journey. Bjørkisen said to me he hoped that one day he would get the chance to meet his freak relatives in Rennebu again, though this would mean an even longer trip. But who knows, maybe in 5 or 10 years Gåte will have their next reunion concert? We all hope that this trip to Norway wasn’t our last one.

The "loot" from our trip to Norway

Text: Miss Loona

Photos: Burkhard, except "3 tourists and their Norwegian guide": Luca

- September 2010 -

Epilogue (January 2020):

In 2017, Gåte eventually reunited again and released a 4-track-EP titled "Attersyn". OK, considering that the only remaining members of the previous line-up were vocalist Gunnhild and her brother Sveinung on fiddle and keyboards, one might question whether the word "reunion" is appropriate in this context. But even though it seemed that the band wanted to take a slightly new direction - the new line-up included drums, bass guitar, piano, organ, programming, synthesizer bass and female backing vocals (the latter provided by Katrin Frøder who also contributed to the songwriting), yet no guitar -, the new songs would have fit on any of Gåte's former releases. A live version of the last song "Venelite" had already been featured on Gåte's first and only live album "Liva", released in 2006.

After the release of "Attersyn", Katrin Frøder and piano/organ-player Ole Jonas Storli left the band and Gåte's former guitarist Magnus Børmark joined the band. With this line-up, completed by Jon Even Schärer on drums and Ronny Janssen on bass guitar (both had already been part of the line-up on "Attersyn"), Gåte released a full-length album titled "Svevn" in autumn 2018.

In October 2019, Burkhard wanted to do a short trip to Oslo to attend two concerts by Kari Bremnes at Sentrum Scene. After he had already bought tickets for these two concerts, he found out that Gåte would be playing at exactly the same venue one day after Kari's concerts. It goes without saying that he also bought a ticket for Gåte's show.

It was a great concert, which also included several of Burkhard's favourite Gåte-songs like "Margit Hjukse", "Knut liten og Sylvelin", "Venelite", "Isdalskvinnen" and "Svevn" (the latter both stem from the current album). After the concert, Burkhard was lucky to meet nearly all the band-members as well as Gåte's manager Per Tronsaune at the merchandise stand. Only Gunnhild had already gone back to the hotel to look after her baby. As regards the stuff Burkhard (also) wanted to have signed by Gunnhild (a few pics from the concert in Oslo 2010, the new CD-booklet and two postcards), Gåte's manager had offered to take the items with him and later on send them to Germany by ordinary mail, once Gunnhild had signed them.

Already after the concert, Burkhard got signed the special picture of Bjørkisen and Magnus he had taken at the aftershow-party way back in 2010. It seemed that also Magnus enjoyed this picture very much, because he immediately took a picture of it with is smartphone. Here's a picture of Bjørkisen holding the signed pic of Magnus and him in his hands:

Let's hope that after their one and so far only German tour in summer 2005, Gåte will also play in Germany again.

There aren't any pictures of Burkhard's trip to Oslo, because this time, he travelled alone, and as far as Gåte's concert is concerned, his position near the mixing board simply wasn't good enough to take some decent pictures.

- Burkhard - 03/2020